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Kenai River Classic: Where Politicians And CEOs Go Fishing
This weekend the annual Kenai River Classic brought together members of Congress, like Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), and heads of major defense companies to help raise $1 million for Alaska salmon habitat preservation.
The 200 or so participants (who each contributed at least $4,000) were shown a good time. They fished the Kenai River for giant king salmon where a hospitality boat handed out bloody marys and cigars and they wined and dined along the riverfront. The Anchorage Daily News has two great photos you can see here.
The annual event has gone on for 14 years, drawing major corporations as donors, including Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Boeing and the heavily-investigated BAE Systems.
But some locals have piped up about the invitational, saying it does more harm than good. This year, the Kenai Area Fisherman's Coalition took out an opposition ad in the print edition of the local paper to complain about the environmental and community damage caused by the event. You can see the print ad here. The group, which includes 10 fish biologists, calls the message of the fundraiser disingenuous, arguing that the money ends up promoting non-sustainable growth along the river, ultimately hurting the habitat. The alliance is also rallying against the murky politicking taking place.
"People get seduced by 'were helping save the river," said Ken Tarbox, who is a member of fisherman's group. "Lockheed Martin doesn't care about this river. A lot of people in the community here would not support this if they knew what was going on."
Tarbox, and others, have said what is really going on is favor swapping. The ad highlights what Stevens said at the 2002 River Classic, as captured by the Anchorage Daily News:
''We invite people we think can afford to put a contribution into the till,'' [Stevens] said, ''and people they want to meet.''
By we, Stevens likely meant his co-host Bob Penney and himself. Penney is a longtime campaign contributor who co-owns a racehorse with the senator and has brought Stevens in on at least one incredible land deal. Penney also testified before a grand jury as part of the ongoing and expanding federal probe of Sen. Stevens and Republican state lawmakers.
Comments (10)
Phil wrote on July 9, 2007 7:04 PM:Nothing like a dead fish over one's desk to promote conservation.
Capt Fred wrote on July 9, 2007 11:08 PM:There is more possibility for prosecution of State and Federal officials in Alaska than you can shake an oosik at. Google Ray Metcalfe (he is the yoeman) or BEN Stevens, Ted's son,who is probably the most corrupt of them all. The Alaska Report has it all.
BobbyD wrote on July 10, 2007 10:02 AM:"But some locals have piped up about the invitational, saying it does more harm than good."
BobbyD wrote on July 10, 2007 10:11 AM:Yeah, Republicans and Corporate heads embracing conservationism! Sounds great! Why don't they invite Dick Cheney along? He may have single-handidly killed off most of the salmon in the state of Washington but it was probably a veiled attempt to boost salmon growth in Alaska. Cheney you old softy, you!
Lets just hope that Senator Stevens doesn't try to save the Alaskan glaciers in a similar fashion. I can see it now...Repugs and ceo's slugging back their bloody marys chilled with real glacier ice!
code word: when-as in: when will the insanity end?
"But some locals have piped up about the invitational, saying it does more harm than good."
Jefferson wrote on July 10, 2007 2:08 PM:Yeah, Republicans and ceo's embracing conservationism! No harm could came from that. Just ask the residents of Washington state about Dick Cheney's affinity for helping conserve the salmon population. My God, everything they touch turns to sh@t! We can only hope that Senator Stevens doesn't attempt to get involved with protecting Alaska's glaciers! I can see it now, Repugs and corporate heads slapping each other on the backs while slamming back bloody marys chilled with real glacier ice!
code word "sudden" as in: I don't know what happened, but all of a sudden all the salmon started to die off
Ted Stevens earmarked several millions to his Classic cronies (Bob Penney's Kenai River Sportfishing Assoc.) a couple of years ago under "habitat" but spending the funds required only saying the word "salmon". Meanwhile Bob Penney sold Senator Lisa Murkowski his lot next to his home along the Keani River last year at a reduced bargain rate. Gee... Lisa holding the 5-ocean chinook she caught at the Classic last year was nation-wide publicity for special interest monies. Meanwhile early run 5-ocean chinooks on the Keani River are under a real conservation mode as less than a hundred return annually. The arbitrary July 1 start up date for the second run of Kenai chinooks in regulation, allowed Lisa to whack one of the few remaining early-run 5-ocean chinooks...but there's a story behind every picture.
Anonymous wrote on July 11, 2007 3:31 AM:ADN or KTUU (local media) look at Lisa's real estate transaction on the Kenai?
Groundswell Fisheries Movement wrote on July 15, 2007 10:18 AM:NOT
Alaskan glacial ice cubes are part of the metaphor - a glacier is built one snowflake at a time, and so is the federal law enforcement case coming.
If all the flakes are known, there will be golf tournaments in central Washington (gee, Don Young's wife won the same diamond bracelet two years in a row in the raffle - lightening!), and there will be elk hunting in Oregon (Don, you shouldn't have flown that Citation - only to return to DC and slide in an earmark for the elk hunt sponsor for fishery rights). And there will be Ted's and many others at Waterfall & El Capitan fishing lodges in SE Alaska. Hastert, Lott and others - including telecom major owners. And SE Alaska boat fishing on seafood giant's boat - allegedly a religious write-off non-profit. And so much more.
The Kenai Classic was too public, too many pictures taken (witnesses). El Capitan pulled many pics from its website about the time a state recall effort and case against Ted's son was filed with Alaska Public Offices Commission and for other reasons. What was a popular brag became a magnet for federal scrutiny.
Try iceberg ice - as in tip of. We'll be watching this site for many years to come, as the Ted, Don, et al story will be the largest corruption case in US history. Telecom officials, oil company execs, many others should fall ... if we the People can keep the support going for the FBI and IRS and others who are trying to protect us from the caesars and oligarchs.
Watergate popularized the term: Follow the money. StevensGate will forever herald: FOLLOW THE EARMARKS (& RIDERS)!
Let freedom and liberty ring.
trailfollower wrote on July 20, 2007 9:54 PM:Not only that, Senator Lisa didn't report the "gift" of the fishing expedition on this years financial report. Furthermore, a member of the board of this outfit (the Kenai River Sportsfishing Association)is on the Alaska Legislative Ethics committee! Always follow the money, kiddies.
Don Johnson wrote on September 19, 2007 1:32 PM:Is the KENAI AREA FISHERMAN'S ASSOCIATION some kind of a Kenai River joke?
Have you been watching the KENAI AREA FISHERMAN'S ASSOCIATION
"Joe Fisherman" attack ads? Maybe you had a chance to catch the their "Peninsula Clarion"
attack ad on the Kenai River Sportfishing Association's "Kenai Classic"?
The KAFA may claim to have 15 "secret society" bitter old retired biologists as members
but who are they and how can anyone verify that they have a hundred million years of experience
managing fisheries in our back yard? The KAFA may appears to be 15 bitter old retired biologists
who spend all their time hating the KRSA and all the Guides out there; the real question is about
there being some kind of method within their "attack ad madness".
You may have caught the KAFA's, Peninsula Clarion membership drive ad on 09/05/07.
The KAFA appears to be looking for additional funds to run even more Kenai River attack ads!
It looks like the KAFA organization has no real website or official membership list.
If you want to become one of their "secret society members", well good luck! You have to get a thumbs
up from "the other secret bitter old retired biologists". How many millions of applications have been
sent in for membership approval and were rejected? Is the rejection data listed on their website?
Opps; oh that's right, they don't have one?
Well maybe we should look up the KAFA's association bylaws or mission statement.
Oh that's right; they don't publish any of that secret stuff for folks to look at! What creditable
organization today fails to at least publish a website where you can read about their mission
and membership? Most kids over five year old today have enough skills to publish some kind
of a website on the internet but the KAFA can't manage to generate one? A hundred million years
of fisheries management experience and none of their secret bitter old retired biologists can sit down
to a computer and peck out a website about their values and members?
The KAFA organization appears to be all about attacking our general sport fish community, while
keeping its "secret society" of bitter old retired biologists rabble-rousers, hidden from public scrutiny.
The KAFA is obviously a 100% pro-commercial gill net fishing organization, which literally hates
anyone who really attempts to fish in "THEIR KENAI RIVER".
One thing which seems to be almost twisted-weird about the group, is that you will NEVER EVER
see any of them actually out there fishing on the Kenai River! This secret society appears to only
lurk within the shadows of Peninsula Clarion propaganda machine, where it expellees 100% of
its resources complaining about anyone who actually attempts to fish the river.
The KAFA belches out so much anti-sport fish propaganda gas, that if anyone were to
light a match near it; the resulting explosion would no doubt blow its 15 members to smithereens
or at least into a low earth orbit for a year or two. This might tend to lead "normal anglers"
to believe KAFA members are not really anglers at all, and might be better defined as being
a twisted branch of some commercial fishing organization. That kind of thinking then leads many
of us to asking the question as to why the Peninsula Clarion would allow an organization to
advertise under a fraudulent sport fish banner, when it obviously only shares the standards
and values of the commercial gill net industry?
Would the Peninsula Clarion print an ad which advertised an organization
collecting funds for World Hunger Relief, when it knew full well that the funds really
ended up in some Nigerian scam artist bank account? I don't thinks so! But the Clarion
does allow the KAFA to advertise as a pro-sport fish group, while it basically supports only
pro-commercial fish values. This is plainly deceptive and misleading advertising and the
Clarion should be held accountable for its partnership within this fraudulent advertising.
It appears that the KENAI AREA FISHERMAN'S ASSOCIATION is all about
collecting funds to promote anti-sport fish propaganda, while fraudulently advertising
to be a pro-sport fish entity. This appears to be a typical commercial fishing "divide and conquer"
strategy where you create a fraudulent new sport fishing group, WHICH ACTUALLY RESENTS
SPORT FISHING ! The point being to force sportfishermen to spend all their time and resources
trying to understand and respond to the same old insane commercial fishing, anti-sport fishing
propaganda machine.
Is the KENAI AREA FISHERMAN'S ASSOCIATION some kind of a Kenai River joke?
Maybe a bad joke.
Kenai Area Fishermen's Coalition
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